Method of manufacturing nails



(No Model.)

J. M. ESTABROOK.

. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING NAILS. No.268,88 0. Patented Deo.w12; 1882."

i UNITED STATEs PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH M. ESTABROOK, OF MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING NAILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 268,880, dated December 12, 182

. Application filed June 29, 1882.

To all whom it may conoernr Be it known that I, JOSEPH M. ESTABROOK, of Milford, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvementin Methods of Manufacturing Nails, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

In this my improved method I take a wire or strip of soft annealed metal of indefinite length and flatten the same at suitable inter vals for alength sufficientto produce thebodies and points of two nails, leaving between the said flattened portions, for the bodies and shanks, a sufficient quantity of stock to produce heads for the said bodies, the stock for the heads being preferably left of the original size of the wire or strip. The strip is severed transversely, or substantially so, at points where the blanks made therefrom are to constitute heads, and the flattened portion of the strip from which the bodies and points of the blanks and nails are to be formed is severed diagonally midway its length by preferably V- .shaped cutters, thus producing blanks with V-shaped edge. The awl-shaped point for the nail will be formed by pressing the nail-blank, formed as described, between dies of proper shape, the said dies acting to compress the stock at right angles to its width, and opposite the direction of pressure which flattened the stock, and such pressure on the point of the blank, one edge of which is diagonal, cen ters the point of the blank with relation to the center of the body of the blank. The shank of the blank will be corrugated by pressure on its edges between dies, and the head will be formed by upsetting the stock by means of a header while the blank is held between the dies.

Figure 1 representsin sectional elevation a sufficient portion of a machine for making nails to exhibit the dies which are to be employed to make nails in accordancewith my method,

(No model.)

] the said dies having been moved forward or together to act upon and compress the point of the blank. Fig. 2 shows the said dies partially turned to corrugate the body ofthe blank, and also the header to head the blank and form a nail; Fig. 3, a face view of one of thedies. Fig. 4 shows a piece of stock from which several nails are to be made. Fig. 5 represents ablank cut from the said stock; Fig. 6., a cross section of the said blank on the dotted line 00 .00, Fig. 5. Figs. 7 and 8 represent in two different positions a nail such as will be produced from the said blank, and Fig. 9 a section on the line 90 Fig.8.

made into nails, is flattened at intervals, as at a, Fig. 4, for a length suflicient for the bodies and points of two nails, and the head-forming portions a between the flattened portions (1, will be of sufficient length to afford stock for the heads of two nails. This long flattened strip ofannealed sott metal will then be cut diagonally on the line a? a to divide the strip for the formation of the points of the blanks, the said strip being severed preferably by means of V-shaped cutters, so as to leave the diagonal edge V-shaped, as shown at 2 in the section, Fig. 6; but instead the cutters which sever the strip dia, ;onally may leave an inclined or vertical edge. The strip will also be cut at right angles, or substantially so, on the line a at, centrally of the head-forming portions. The strip cut on the lines a a willproduce blanks such as shown at b, Fig. 5. The blank I), when to be compressed into shape for a nail, will be fed into'a suitable tube, which will guide and deliver it into position between the dies 0 c, which will be separated, and the head-forming end of the blank will drop upon a sliding plate, (not shown,) which will support the blank with its upper end in such position that as the said dies are moved toward each other horizontally the upper portions of the said dies (shown as segments) will close upon the diagonally-cut end. of the blank, and

the point of the blank central with the blank, as in Fig. 1..

The dies 0 0 are shown as segments pivoted at 0 0 The pivots c c of the dies will be held in guides, or will be so held as to be moved horizontally so as to permit the dies to be recip- A wire or strip of indefinite length, to he will, by pressure thereon, straighten or makerocated horizontally toward and from each other to clamp and compress between their grooved faces and into their die-grooves the diagonally-cut or point end of the blank I as in Fig. 1, thus forcing the point which in the blank, Fig. 4, is at one side of the blank into central position with relation to the blank, as in Fig. 1, molding the said diagonal point (preferably \I-shaped on one edge, as at 2, and straight on its other edge, as at 3) and spreading and squeezing the said metal by pressure thereon in the direction of its width, or from edge to edge, to form a point, preferably awlshaped, as shown at 0, Figs. 7 and 8. The dies, having clamped the blank, as in Fig. 1, arethen moved or turned in the direction of the arrows thereon by suitable devices, causing the said dies 0 c to pass along over the shank of the blank, bringing the dies and blank into the position, Fig. 2, the corrugated or scored inner portion, d of the die-groove (see Fig. 3) corrugating the body or shank, as shown at 8, by a pressure on the said blank in the direction of its Width and in a direction opposite the pressure previously exerted on the blank when rolling the wire or strip into the form represented in Fig. 4.

In the working machine the lower end of the blank, when about to be caught between the dies 0 a, will be supported on a movable slide, which latter will be withdrawn as soon as the dies get hold of the blank and start to move with it, the said slide gettingout of the way of header Ir -an ordinary plunger-which will be reciprocated at the proper time by any suitable devices. The awlshaped point e of the fastening or nail will be formed in the part (1 of the die-groove, (see Fig. 3,) and the end of the blank to form the head 10 will be upset in the die-space d, as in Fig. 2. After the head has been formed the header will be retracted and the dies will be separated sufficiently to let the nail drop, and the dies will then resume the position represented in Fig. 1, but separated for the passage ofa blank down between them from above, as before described.

The upper portions of the die-grooves are suitably shaped to give to the point of the nail substantially the cross-section shown in Fig.

9, which produces for the nail an awl-shaped clinching-point, the edges 4 of which are reduced in thickness, or made thin and sufficiently sharp from. the point 5 of the nail upward to its corrugated shank to drive into leather without first making a hole with an awl.

When fortning an awl-shaped point by the direct pressure and horizontal movement of the dies the V-shaped edge 2 of the blank, formed by cutting the strip on the line a by V-shaped cutters, enters one of the die-grooves, and the edge 2, being V-shaped, is much more easily and accurately compressed in and made to conform to the'space d of the die than were the diagonal edge not V-shaped, and thus the formation of an awl-shaped point is greatly facilitated.

Mechanism for operating the dies 0 c and the header will form the subject-matter for another application for patent.

Compressing the body of the blank from edge to edge in the direction of its greatest thickness enables me to form well-defined or prominent and uniform projections or threads to hold firmly in the leather. The dies 0 c, by their harder pressure on the shank 8 of the blank, harden and stiifen it more than at the point 0, so the point is or may be left a little softer than the body above it.

I am aware that nail-blanks cut transversely from a strip of metal as wide as the nail is to be long have had their shanks corrugated by pressure between dies; but such dies have never acted in any way upon the point of the blank to bevel or spread or make it into awl shape, such as shown at c. When the pointof the blank, by pressure between the dies 0 c, is spread into the shape shown in Figs. 7 to 9 the point e is so spread that its longest crosssection is at right angles to the thickness of the blank before it was pressed between the dies.

1 claim- The herein-described improvement in the art or method of making nails, which consists in flattening a strip of metal, severing the said flattened strip diagonally at intervals of its length, leaving blanks with one inclined edge, severing the said strip at a distance therelrom, as described, to form a head-forming portion for the blank, then pressing the said blank at its edges, or in the direction of its width, between dies shaped to form a point for the nail and to corrugate the shank of the nail above thepoint,the said pressure forformingthepoint and body of the nail being exerted from edge to edge of the flattened blank and opposite the thickness ot'the strip, or the direction in which the strip was pressed to form the blank, substantially as described.

2. That part of the herein-described method of forming nails having an awl-shaped point,

such as shown at e, which consists in flattening a strip of metal, severing the flattened strip diagonally to form ablank with V-shaped edge at one end, subjecting the metal at the point of the blank to a pressure from edge to edge between grooved dies, in one of which grooves the said V-shaped diagonal edge is entered, the said pressure, in the direction of the width of the blank, and at right angles to the pressure which flattened the strip, spreading the point of the blank, making its longest cross-section at right angles to the thickness of the flattened strip, substantially as described.

In testimony whereofl have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

J OSEPH M. ESTABROOK.

Witnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, W. H. SIesToN. 

